Joy and Depression

 "A mad man does not know he is mad, but it is felt by others, same happens when someone is stupid." "Because a man has injured your goat, do not go out and kill his bull." "A pretty face and fine clothes do not make character."   Ubuntu African Proverbs.                Ramadan has ended. A nice tradition here is taking a plate full of food, usually couscous, to your neighbors and donating a little bit of money to the poor. So you can see folks walking to various houses with hot food in the evening after fasting all day during Ramadan. But Ramadan also means a lot less business, during the day cafés, restaurants and fast food facilities are closed, in the evening most folks eat at home with their families, banks and several shops, etc. work shorter hours. In addition not everybody copes well without food, gets a bit confused or falls sick unaware that their physical condition doesn't allow them to fasten. Not without reason elderly, sick people, pregnant women, travellers and children are exempt from fastening. During the 27th night of Ramadan angels are supposed to come down to earth, a very special night. Unfortunately those who lost their religion, have no love for their country, no respect for humans and animals, no empathy, just a lot of anger and aggression, blame others for their misery, take drugs, think this is a night to let out hate and revenge by killing innocent defenceless animals. An unknown number of such individuals got together and unfortunately managed with a lot of force to enter the cats' shelter of the Association RPA in Sousse, Port Elkantoui, in spite of high fencing and 40 strong expensive padlocks. It happed during the night, most cats must have been sleeping in what they considered a secure shelter. Many had suffered a difficult life before, threatened by disturbed stone throwing kids / youngsters and traffic, uncertainly of food, in addition often of  bad quality, kicked out off houses for convince, a tough life on the road. Innocently sleeping, expecting no bad, made them easy prey for those with evil intentions, torturing and killing them with stones. When the massacre ended 40 cats had lost their life, some cats manged to excape the horror, probably traumatised. The people in charge of the shelter and who work there are under shock. They cared for all those beautiful little treasures, fed them, looked after their health, got to know all those Habibis with their different characters, cuddled with them, enjoyed their love and gratitude, seeing them lying there, beaten to death, an absolute nightmare, difficult to stomach. The shelter is financed with donations from animal loving folks, including the Brigitte Bardo foundation, as far as I know, thus no money that was taken away from locals. Those (often women with roots in Europe or even US) who see the dire situation of cats and dogs here and feel forced to act, are frequently "advised" to help the poor instead. Is it envy? All bad I ever experienced came from humans, never from an animal (they don't lie, cheat, steal, use dirty tricks, start wars). Anyhow, cameras are installed near the RPA shelter and the videos should enable the police to trace, arrest and imprison the evil criminals. They are dangerous, it is a proven fact that those who abuse/kill animals often later in life commit simular crimes against humans (American survey on Death Row). Folks frequently believe that not  any animal protection laws whatsoever excist here, because so little action is taken. But that is often because of lack of knowledge, no money for lawyers and too little trust in the work of the police. Of course if you don't speak to the police then they can't act. Anyhow, we have got laws that can be helpful, but we urgently need stronger animal protection laws that should also make the ignorant understand the value of animal life, animals have feelings too and after all  Allah created them as well. By the way, the daily praised Prophet Mohamed loved cats and he advised: "Have sympathy with the animals on earth and then Allah will also have sympathy with you." It is also a proven fact that pets usually have a positive  effect on kids, they learn empathy, responsibility, solidarity, the meaning of true friendship, receive love and joy from their animal comrade. We need such kids, they grow up as good citizens that help create a great society.